Learn one Chinese Character a day - "旦"

today we examine the meaning of a new Chinese character "旦", which is related to "日". As you can see clearly, "旦" is composed of a "日" with a underscore "_" . what does it mean then? recall that underscore "_" can be used to mean either sky or earth when Chinese ancestors created Chinese characters.
we now have two guesses -
1. "旦" is the Sun "日" just above the earth "_". or
2. "旦" is the Sun "日" just above the sky "_".

second guess sounds quite weird. ancient people normally think Sky is the highest and Sun normally hang under sky.

first guess sounds much more reasonable that Sun is just above the earth line, which means dawn or morning when Sun just raised above horizon. That is the correct meaning of "旦".

Since  "旦" means Sun above horizon, it can also mean daytime.

now let us see the evolutionary history of "旦". (image get from http://www.vividict.com/)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "旦"

 In Oracle script , Chinese ancestors used to mean the sun and to mean earth. while it evolved to Bronze script, is simplified to , When it comes to Seal script , it is further simplified from to , which is very close to what we are using now - "旦".

Let us enjoy a calligraphy with "旦" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "旦"

 Next time we will learn "从". Guess its meaning?